US mobsters jailed

NEW YORK, (Reuter) - A captain of the Gambino crime family and his brother were sentenced yesterday to 15 years in prison on racketeering charges that include murder and drug trafficking.

John Gambino, 53, who had been a captain in the reputed crime family run by John Gotti, and Joseph Gambino, 48, had pleaded guilty in January to the crimes committed between 1975 and 1992. The men are distant cousins of the late Carlo Gambino, a former head of the family. They are not entitled to parole. John Gambino was also fined dollars 250,000 (170,000) and Joseph dollars 25,000. The men pleaded guilty to arranging to smuggle large amounts of heroin into the United States, running illegal gambling and loan-sharking businesses, and to participating in the 1988 murder of Francesco Oliveri in New York.

Oliveri was murdered at Gotti's request because he was rumoured to have been responsible for the killing of Giuseppe Gambino, another member of the family.

The pleas followed a five-month trial last year in which they were convicted of bail jumping.